


Mementos

by breathingfire



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Other, also juno is slightly better, amab nb juno, let the lady be happy, set in some vague future time, trans man Peter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 04:15:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13651245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/breathingfire/pseuds/breathingfire
Summary: Juno endeavors to commit all of Nureyev to memory, just in case.In the process, he finds something new.





	Mementos

Juno Steel loves Peter Nureyev. He understands that, now, is less afraid of the concept. (Speaking that out loud, however, is a bit of a different story.) And somehow, by some miracle, Peter Nureyev loves Juno Steel. 

They have an arrangement in place, since Juno refuses to leave Mars and Peter cannot stay for too long. Peter visits him between… jobs, which averages out to about once a month for about a week, usually. Juno would never admit it, but he misses him terribly during those absences, although Peter usually returns before the loneliness truly sets in. And he also worries. A lot. Much more than he thought he would, in all honesty. He knows Peter can take care of himself, has taken care of himself for over twenty years, but, as his mind loves to remind him while he's sitting alone in the office nursing the last dregs of a bottle of whiskey, all it takes is one stray laser blast, and Juno would never know.

So they call. Pretty damn often. Whenever Peter can swing it without blowing his cover, they talk on a specific encrypted video line Rita set up. (It was worth the needling she put him through for weeks about it, but only barely.) It was usually once every few days, sometimes every single day. Once, Peter didn't contact him for two and a half weeks, and while Juno threw himself into cases and booze, they didn't exactly cut it. He was extremely close to calling up Dark Matters and begging Sasha to do him a favor when Peter called, grinning and breathless in a closet somewhere halfway across the galaxy.

And, when Juno does have him in the flesh, he notes details, commits everything to memory. Nothing escapes the detective's eye. Not even the incredibly small, incredibly faint scars settled neatly beneath Peter's nipples. Juno was tracing them, lightly and quietly, when he noticed Peter was staring at him. Juno didn't even realize he was awake.

“What?” Juno asked, defensively. 

“You can ask about them, if you want.” Peter took the hand tracing his chest and redirected it to his lips, kissing the palm. “I don't want to keep secrets from you,” he grinned, “except the things you want to be kept from you, of course.”

“I…” He wants to know. Now that he's over his initial hesitation, he wants to know everything about this man, this enigmatic Peter Nureyev who brings more light into Juno's life than he ever thought possible, but he also doesn't want to pry. Doesn't deserve to pry.

But Peter is looking at Juno with such an open expression. He wants Juno to know the real Peter Nureyev, and how could he say no? 

“Did they… make you uncomfortable?”

Peter chuckled quietly at his detective's attempt at tact. “Not particularly dysphoric, no. They even came in handy, once or twice. But they were more of a nuisance than an asset.” He shrugged, a bit awkwardly while lying down and Juno still mostly on top of him. “And the amount of running you have to do in my line of work, well, binding doesn't mix too well with that.”

Juno nodded. He could only imagine trying to run for your life while being squeezed half to death by your clothes. He had enough trouble running as it was.

Then he frowned. “But why keep the scars?” The rest of Peter's body was basically unblemished, although Juno knew firsthand that it was not from lack of injuries. He just knew a very good laser removal technician. And went there very often.

Peter laughed breathily, perhaps a little self consciously? “Because I had to keep  _ something _ from my old life, Juno.”

The confusion must have shown on Juno's face, because Peter continued, “I needed something to remember who  _ I _ am, who  _ Peter Nureyev _ is, or else I would just… lose myself entirely. I've… seen it happen.” He was contemplative for a moment, rubbing his own hand over his chest absentmindedly. “And in a job where you have to pack lightly enough to run for your life at the drop of a hat, why not keep that reminder on my skin?”

Juno smiled. He felt like he had one more piece to Nureyev puzzle. He leaned down to kiss him. “Thank you,” Juno whispered against his lips.

“For what?”

“For sharing that with me.”

Peter grinned. “Of course, Juno. All of me is yours.”

There was a twinge in the pit of Juno's stomach, and a little voice in the back of his mind reminded him how  _ you don't deserve this, Steel. You don't deserve  _ him. 

But Juno shook his head, and laid it above Peter's heart. Peter's arms wrapped around him automatically. Peter seemed to want him, and that was good enough for Juno.

**Author's Note:**

> look, it's like 500 years in the future, I hope to all the gods we'd have a better, less intrusive method of top surgery  
> and also it may be ooc but I just want Juno to be happy,,,
> 
> comments + kudos fuel me
> 
> also feel free to follow me on [@zestycheck](https://zestycheck.tumblr.com) for some good penumbra pod Content


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